Laura Esther Spillett 1906 -1992
My Great Aunt Laura was someone who I can never remember meeting, if I did, I expect I was very young, too young to remember. I think that I heard my father talking about her. I have a nice photograph of Laura and my father at the annual Crowning of the May Queen in Oxted. Why we never had any more contact with Laura is a mystery to me because for decades we lived only a few miles from Oxted. Perhaps my parents did have contact but thought that the rest of their children would have no interest as we grew up. I’m also minded that by 1992 I and my family had moved to live in Glasgow and it may well have been that my father went to her memorial service.
The Oxted May Queen. Laura Spillett is crowned Queen and she is in the centre of the picture. At her feet, third from the right, is my father, William Carver. He was born in 1912 and he looks about nine years old. The picture dates to around 1921.
One person who did have consistent contact with Laura was my father’s brother, John. My Uncle John Carver lived in the Oxted area all his life and in his own way he was quite a history carrier. His local newspaper had a weekly page where they invited a reader to compile a piece on their history. John’s piece was an amazing collection of photos that showed my Great Grandfather Henry Spillett and his son William (I think) with Laura as a young girl.
A page from the Caterham Mirror of 1986. This was a weekly page that readers could be invited to submit memories from the past. The photos relating to the Spillett family are the second set of three below the dancers. This was quite an exciting find for me because it shows the only image of my Great Grandfather Henry Spillett that I have seen. He is standing outside the Spillett’s bicycle shop in Oxted with, I think, his son William. The next photo shows them again outside the shop with Laura. She looks younger than her May Queen crowning and so this picture was probably taken around 1914. The last photo is Spillett’s Coach Builders. This was Henry’s main trade before he took over the Wheatsheaf Inn as publican.
Laura was born in 1906 in Oxted and lived there all her life.
Laura was born in 1906 in Oxted. (Oxted Parish Register via Ancestry.com)
Laura attended Beadles Lane First School where she met her husband to be, George Brown. This is the same school that my father attended, he was a young pupil at the time of Laura becoming crowned May Queen. The photo outside of the Spillett’s bicycle shop would have been taken a few years before then.
Laura standing next to her big brother with her father on the right of the picture.
Laura was the daughter of Sarah, Henry Spillett’s second wife. She was the youngest of his six children and Sarah’s third child.
Laura and George Brown married in 1936. Their wedding was described in the local newspaper as an “Interesting Wedding “. This was because the ceremony was the first Marriage ceremony by the new incumbent of the Parish of Brenchley, a village in Kent near Matfield, a short distance from Tunbridge Wells. Both Laura and George were brought up in Oxted. The question is, why were they marrying miles away in the Kent countryside. The answer lies in the newspaper report. Laura is described as the only daughter of Mrs H Smith of Matfield. The only assumption that I can make is that Sarah had remarried after the death of her husband Henry Spillett, my Great Grandfather, who died in 1922.
An interesting wedding. The gifts look interesting.
The newspaper also reports that my grandfather, George Carver, was George Brown’s Best Man. It is followed by a complete report of each, and every wedding gift bought by the guests, naming the items and the gift bearers. It shows the power of good old-fashioned newspaper reporting where mundane information is detailed to help the future generations glean new information that normal records do no include.
The 1939 England and Wales Register, the register which looks like a Census return but is not, shows a household of Browns and others whose names I don’t recognise, which will tell me some new and interesting stories once I begin to research them.
Laura and George Brown’s entry in the 1939 Register. They are number 116 on the register and living at Knights Hill, Hurst Green. (National Archives via Ancestry.com)
Other newspaper reports show that Laura and George brought up two children, who I have yet to discover.
Golden Wedding. Clip from the Surrey mirror 1986. (Newspaper Archives via Findmypast)
Laura died in 1992. She died in Yeovil, Somerset. Why in this town I have no knowledge.
‘An Old Oxted Woman’. A shoddy sub editor creating a headline that does not give credit to Laura’s life, well lived. Also in this picture is my Uncle John Carver and his wife Betty. (Surrey Mirror).
Laura and George appear to have been very popular in the Oxted vicinity. The newspaper accounts suggest a good life well lived. There is more to tell after some more research.
(All newspaper clippings from Newspaper Archives via Findmypast.com)